A. Richard (Brick) Susko

A. Richard (Brick) Susko, who died in 2017 at age 69, was an accomplished Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) practitioner and speaker on ERISA issues. He was inducted as a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2000.

Brick earned a B.S. in mathematics from Union College in Schenectady, NY in 1969. He received a J.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University in 1974 and an LL.M. degree (taxation) from New York University (“NYU”) School of Law in 1980.

Brick joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in 1974, became a partner in 1982, and became senior counsel in 2013. His practice focused on employee benefits and executive compensation, including work on fiduciary and tax aspects of pension fund investment, employment agreements and golden parachutes, stock options, and other executive incentive compensation plans. He also had extensive experience in the benefit aspects of mergers and acquisitions, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (“ESOPs”), plan terminations and interplay of the bankruptcy laws and benefit-related obligations.

He co-chaired the annual Practising Law Institute (“PLI”) program on legal issues involved with the investment of ERISA plans for more than 20 years and frequently spoke on fiduciary and executive compensation matters.

He was known throughout the legal field for his experience on ERISA work, a specialty that was timely: ERISA was passed into law the same week Brick joined Cleary. Brick was also known for his dedication to training and mentoring younger lawyers, including many years of teaching at Yale Law School and the NYU School of Law.

College Fellow Bronislaw (Broni) Grala shared, “Like Brick, I started working on ERISA from the time it was introduced in Congress. Over the course of our careers Brick and I worked across from each other and with each other many, many times, and we appeared on numerous PLI and other panels on ERISA related topics. (Many of those panels were part of the longstanding annual PLI program on advanced fiduciary issues co-chaired by Brick and [College Fellow] Howard Pianko, another lifetime ERISA veteran.)”

College Fellow Melanie Nussdorf added a note on Brick’s generosity and perseverance. “If a practitioner called Brick with a question, he never turned them down, never hesitated to take time to help other lawyers wrestling with some arcane legal issue. Since the lawyer was often me, I can’t even begin to estimate the number of times he said: ‘Hey, what can I do for you?’ And he meant it. He had enormous knowledge, was practical and constructive, and he never hesitated to share those gifts with others. He was a steadfast advocate for his clients but also for all plans: we lobbied together on the Pension Protection Act of 2006; he never gave up, never quit explaining, cajoling, educating and responding to Congressional staff. He was very very smart and equally tireless.”

In addition to his years of dedicated work for the firm and his clients, Brick was an avid cyclist who shared his bike trip adventures in blogs.

As Broni Grala noted, “During his long career, there was never anyone more highly regarded in his areas of practice than Brick: he was universally recognized as brilliant, thoughtful, fair, of the highest integrity, humorous, a steadfast advocate for his clients, and devoted to the advancement of the profession.”

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010